The paint-by-number method of making pictures has been available for many years and pictures of varying complexity have been sold for use by different age groups. These are on the market as kits which include the picture printed on a cardboard back with numbers denoting different colors in the various outlined areas, and the paints corresponding to those numbers. Needlepoint projects are also sold as fabric imprinted with the design coded as to color. Ellwein added three dimensional appliques to the needlework to form parts of the picture such as a face, flower or balloon (U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,230).
Lovejoy (U.S. Pat. No. 2,148,632) teaches a method of using flexible strands on a board to outline a picture. A craft section in Popular Mechanics shows the use of a necklace chain to form the profile of a face. The shape can be changed to make any number of humerous profiles (October 1961, vol. 116, no. 4, page 206). Urbach (U.S. Pat. No. 2,784,513) uses adhesive impregnated fiber strands of different colors affixed to a background or support to form decorative designs or pictures.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,575, Leika teaches a method of making a picture with colored powders or granules. The picture is formed from a base sheet coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive over which is placed a thin cover sheet which is die cut in sections. The sections are numbered corresponding to specific colors. As each section of the cover sheet is removed, the adhesive is exposed and dusted with a powder or granules of one of the specified colors. When all of the sections of the cover sheet have been removed and color applied, a picture results, Lemmeyer (U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,722) shows a similar board with numbered cover sections which are removed to expose adhesive to which colored yarns are applied to form a picture. Hamanaka used yarn with a pressure sensitive adhesive to make designs on flat and three dimensional surfaces (U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,740).
A graphic arts toy utilizes string or yarn which is retained by flexible fingers attached to a board. Any color can be used and the designs are retained until the user chooses to remove them and start again. (Fogarty et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,375).
A recent U.S. Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,305; Grant) discloses a kit which comprises a base sheet outlined with numbered areas, adhesively backed colored foil segments and a transparent overlay carrying a design outlined in black. When the numbered areas are filled with the appropriate foil segments and the cover sheet is set in place, a picture results in which the colors are highlighted by the black outline.
An old Russian craft involved sewing beads onto a fabric to produce pictures which were framed and hung as works of art. The technique was time consuming and tedious. The beads were applied in strings, but there were stitches between each two beads to affix the strings of beads to the fabric. The instant invention attempts to achieve the appearance of the old craft, but provides a much easier method of attaining that end. A base card is imprinted with the design and has numbered sections to designate the color to be used. The beads are applied in strings and affixed along the imprinted outline with an adhesive. The sections are then filled in with additional beads. The final picture has the appearance of the stitched beads. The method can be utilized by children as well as adults, and can be accomplished with beads of different sizes, though the size of beads used in any one design is uniform.